Call for paper proposals - DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 30th

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short (ca. 50 words) bio to the NeMLA portal at this link: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21839.

In periods of economic and cultural crisis, cui bono? Who benefits? How are accounts kept, and gains accounted for? Who is accountable and who is not? What forms does the balance sheet take? What is its narrative and who gets to construct it? How is creative accounting investigated?

The early to mid-twentieth century was a period of global economic crisis, revolution, and war that facilitated a shift of global economic and political hegemony from the British empire to the American. The Weimar Republic’s afterlife as a historical nexus of crisis lends itself especially well to issues of accountability and accounting.

During this period, accounting practices emerged not merely as technical procedures but as cultural phenomena that reflected, shaped, and sometimes subverted economic and political realities. Meanwhile, various forms of cultural production registered, critiqued, and intersected with corporate business practices in ways that both documented and transformed public understanding of economic activities. The material culture of this era further complicates narratives of national economic identity and technological transfer.

This panel comprehends accounting in its concrete, economically inflected meanings: “cooking the books,” crimes of fraud and embezzlement, accounting as an investigative, forensic tool. But we also understand “accounting” in broader terms: What sort of accounting do literary or cinematic narratives offer? In what ways does narrative produce or inflect economic reality? How is narrative form itself economic, creative and/or forensic?

This interdisciplinary panel seeks papers that explore the intersection of forensic and creative accounting within broader cultural, political, and social developments from 1900 to 1955. Of particular interest is how forensic accounting operates as a form of narrative accounting—reconstructing financial stories, uncovering hidden plots, and creating coherent narratives from fragmented evidence.

Contributions from a variety of disciplines welcome: literary studies, critical theory, history and theory of art and architecture, history of business and finance, film and media studies, political and economic history and theory, political economy, material and cultural studies.

This panel will be held during the 2026 NeMLA Convention taking place March 5-8, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA and will be in-person only. The panel format involves presenting a paper of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) followed by Q&A.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short (ca. 50 words) bio to the NeMLA portal at this link: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21839.

Deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2025.